Black River rule at Western Primary Champs

Western Bureau

Black River Primary produced a dominant performance to sweep both the boys' and the girls' titles at the 10th staging of the Western Primary School Championships at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall last Saturday.

Black River got 190 points to successfully defend their girls' title as they finished ahead of Hague (90), Corinaldi (77), Brompton and Catherine Hall Primary (61 each).

In the boys' contest Black River tallied 136. Howard Cooke (103.5), Barracks Road 93.5, Corinaldi (88) and Wakefield (76.5) completed the top five.

Coach of Black River Primary Davion Elliot was very happy with what they have managed to accomplish in this their third championships.

"We didn't win the boys section last year and we saw where we could have done a lot more. We believed the team (boys and girls) we had this year would be good enough to come out on top if we got everything together. We worked hard, put the pieces together this year and we delivered," said Elliott.

Elliot who also coaches the jumps at St Elizabeth Technical High School said he believes if the country is to broaden their participation at the international level to include more than just sprints, then field event coaches have to place early emphasis on the technical events at the primary level.

PRIMARY LEVEL

"In truth the technical events are my speciality, especially the jumps so we pay key attention to those events. It is full time we pay attention and try to develop these events for Jamaica at the primary level," said Elliot.

"Our sprinting is very good and will continue to do well. However, we need to spread our wings as a country and I believe it starts from here," he added.

Nathoniel Gibbs of Corinaldi Primary was one of the standout performers of the championships picking up three gold medals in the Class 5 100m, 200m and 4x100 metres. Gibbs also set a new record of 24.94 in the 200m.

Kemeisha Brown was named the champion girl after picking up wins in the Class 5 100m and 200m and a fourth place finish in the long jump.